AT&T U-verse Expansion

AT&T U-verse Expansion

From the press release found in the link below:

Investing in Wireline IP Network Growth

AT&T plans to expand and enhance its wireline IP network to 57 million customer locations (consumer and small business) or 75 percent of all customer locations in its wireline service area by year-end 2015. This network expansion will consist of:

U-verse. AT&T plans to expand U-verse (TV, Internet, Voice over IP) by more than one-third or about 8.5 million additional customer locations, for a total potential U-verse market of 33 million customer locations¹. The expansion is expected to be essentially complete by year-end 2015.

U-verse IPDSLAM. The company plans to offer U-verse IPDSLAM service (high-speed IP Internet access and VoIP) to 24 million customer locations in its wireline service area by year-end 2013.

Speed Upgrades. The Project VIP plan includes an upgrade for U-verse to speeds of up to 75Mbps and for U-verse IPDSLAM to speeds of up to 45Mbps, with a path to deliver even higher speeds in the future.Fiber to Multi-Tenant Business Buildings. AT&T plans to proactively expand its fiber network to reach an additional one million business customer locations – 50 percent of the multi-tenant business buildings² in its wireline service area. AT&T expects the proactive fiber deployment to increase business revenue growth, accelerate provisioning and facilitate the installation of distributed antennas systems and small cell technology to help offload wireless network traffic.

In the 25 percent of AT&T's wireline customer locations where it's currently not economically feasible to build a competitive IP wireline network, the company said it will utilize its expanding 4G LTE wireless network -- as it becomes available -- to offer voice and high-speed IP Internet services. The company's 4G LTE network will cover 99 percent of all in-region customer locations. AT&T's 4G LTE network offers speeds competitive with, if not higher than, what is available on wired broadband networks today. And in many places, AT&T's 4G LTE service will be the first high speed IP broadband service available to many customers.

Fiber to Multi-Tenant Business Buildings. AT&T plans to proactively expand its fiber network to reach an additional one million business customer locations – 50 percent of the multi-tenant business buildings² in its wireline service area. AT&T expects the proactive fiber deployment to increase business revenue growth, accelerate provisioning and facilitate the installation of distributed antennas systems and small cell technology to help offload wireless network traffic.

AT&T's U-verse Expansion? Just for the bigger cities, leaving the rest of us in the dark?

All this raises a great number of questions

1) Why do the larger companies that are already heavily invested in hard-line communications not even TRYING to compete?

(probable answer - short sighted investors essentially forcing these companies to invest in cellular technology for the huge charges - and larger profits. Watch how fast companies roll out new cellular technologies compared to land-line technologies that have been around for decades)

2) How is Google able to start rolling out GIGAbit data, up AND down, with 0 cap - and AT&T cannot even come close to those speeds, and imposes rather severe data caps on itheir internet?

(I can't even begin to answer this one - I'm still jaw dropped at the facts about Google's internet speeds and their pricing. Almost infinitely more provided, and even then, it's LESS expensive than anyone else - who are older/slower services.)

3) Why do I have a fiber line running not 1000' from my home, but I can't even get any form of 'acceptable' broadband? (satellite broadband is hardly worth the name, what with high latency, slow speeds, and unreliability) And ths is just a 'loop' ? through a very low population density region. Also, I've seen at least 2 fiber lines being installed not 3 miles away over the past 10 years.

There ARE answers to these questions, although I'm certain most will view them as simply rhetorical.

U-verse was recently made available in our area - but only Internet, as far as I've been able to determine. And even then, not at the higher speeds.

So, when will this be expanded upon, adding the other services - as well as expanding coverage area?

We recieved phone calls trying to sell us U-verse packages - but when I researched it, there ARE no packages, just internet, and only at the absolute lowest end (700kbps speeds for this household), meaning probable total unreliability . Talk about leaving a bad impression.

PS. Seriously considering moving to Kansas City.

Google's giga-bit internet, no caps, and TV full channel line-up all at $120/month

vs.

AT&T's best offer of 24 MB with 250 GB cap at $66/month, + up to 430 channels at $121/month = $187'ish introductory rate for one year, increased ?? after.

Re: AT&T's U-verse Expansion? Just for the bigger cities, leaving the rest of us in the dark?

Most of the time it's to make the investors happy .

We have AT&T fiber running throughout our lawn with us only being about 20 feet away from it. VDSL for us .

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Re: AT&T's U-verse Expansion? Just for the bigger cities, leaving the rest of us in the dark?

A1: You've probably hit the nail on the head. AT&T itself is looking at using wireless technology in low density markets.

A2: Google is being incredibly selective about where they run infrastructure. They're canvassing areas and getting commitments prior to laying fiber and commiting hardware.

A3: I was thinking about this today. Fiber is more expensive to handle, harder to terminate and splice correctly, still needs repeaters every few miles or so, etc. etc. It's not an infinite resource. Let's say someone runs a fiber a mile from a CO to a apartment building where every appartment can have an ONT right next to the end of this mile. Let's put 200 apartments in the building, and 11 fibers in the bundle, along with a few spares in case one or two has some undiscovered optical issues down the road.

Let's say each of these fibres can carry a gigabit. We'll use 10 for download and 1 for the return. So... Let's sign up all 200 apartments for service. okay, 10 Gigabit/200 is... 50 Mbps. Up, well we only have one return, so that's 1 Gbps/200, or 5 Mbps up.

This isn't quite double what AT&T U-verse can deliver over last-mile copper, and without the expense associated with the difficulties of handling last-mile fiber. Bell labs has found ways, in lab, to do much better than this over 2 pair short copper runs.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: AT&T's U-verse Expansion? Just for the bigger cities, leaving the rest of us in the dark?

Revising a comment in my earlier post. 250 GB data cap really isn't 'severe restriction' - that comes to an average of over 8 GB / day usage, not many of us would hit that, even with streaming and browsing and gaming all at once.

Unless you're talking a family of active online users (kids on da 'tube, social media sites, etc, parents working/playing, etc. Then, I suppose it could get to be an issue.

anyway...

Fiber, from what I recall in my studies, has quite a long reach, something like 60-75 miles before needing to be amplified, and then after 3-4 amplification, to be regenerated. Trunk lines can run around 14 Tb/s.

Then, take into consideration the cost of copper vs. fiber. Cost of installation is vastly cheaper, and longer runs before needing to be 'restored', so equipment costs are also down. And all this is older information, so these numbers could be even better, today.

Also, consider the fact of the aging copper lines that are currently in place. All things degrade over time, and copper lines are no different. The 'clarity' of signal degrades more quickly over older lines, and many of those are needing to be replaced. Then, considering the sensitivity of the lines to water seepage, external disruptions caused by EM fields, etc - things fiber isn't prone to.

And the cost of splicing? Dropped a LOT over the past couple decades. From a conversation with technicians who worked with the stuff, it's mostly automated. Guy puts the lines in place, machine does all the trim, polish, and 'weld' automatically. Having done it by hand myself for patch cables, it's a pain - but again, new equipment rather does away with that issue.

So, the complaints of cost of fiber really aren't realistic. Any new construction should have 'fiber to house', and any repairs to systems should be upgrading to those goals - look to the future, build toward that anticipated load - data transmission is going to continue growing at the extreme rate it has been, for the forseeable future.

I just wish there were a way to put more pressure on our primary telecommunication companies to reinvest in our telecommunication infrastructure, instead of chasing short-term profits. Google's entrance to the IP market was an attempt for just that thing, from what I understand. They ARE a company based on vast quantities of data transmission - so it makes sense they want the infrastructure to be capable of handling it.

Re: AT&T's U-verse Expansion? Just for the bigger cities, leaving the rest of us in the dark?

Fiber is a complicated beast and not easily simplified. There's single-mode (which can go dozens of miles) and multimode (that can't really go a mile), each with their own benefits and restrictions. Those fancy machines that do all the splicing for you cost a little more than a pair of crimpers.

If there's money to be made at it, someone will figure out a way to do it. Then the government will find a way to tax the income.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: AT&T U-verse Expansion

I recently talked to a tech that was at my neighbors house and they informed me that they had uverse. This was exciting because I have been wanting it forever and the tech said I should be able to get it maybe via an INID connection. Well, after going to order again and being told no..AGAIN the store did whats called an F-Case. This came back saying I was in fact not eligible. Placed a order for the 768k uverse internet (the only thing showing available at my address) per what customer service told me was to tell the tech once they arrived that I wanted an INID hook-up for TV and everything. Well again this tech told me that my neighbor should not even have Uverse, that it was a glich and should not have it which means they would not install.

Why did the first tech which seemed like he knew his stuff tell me I could get Uverse via INID, my neighbor has it (but Shouldnt?..but do!) and I cant get it? Well why can i not have it and be in the glich category as well. I have been told that both my neighbor and I are too far from whatever...but THEY HAVE IT!

any help or thoughts, and even better any solutions will be appreciated!

Re: AT&T U-verse Expansion

I would recommend that you send a private message to the escalation team at ATT Customer Care and someone will get in touch with you. Please include your name, address, phone number and the best time to contact you. Their normal business hours are from 7am to 10pm Central Time. It may take up to 48 hours for them to respond and please take into account weekends when contacting them.

Customer care is not the same as customer service. They are a dedicated escalation team that gets issues resolved when other means have failed.

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